It wasn’t perfect for Cleveland State in its 94-52 victory over Division II school Ohio Dominican on Saturday afternoon in the Wolstein Center, but it was better.
And, if nothing else, improving to 3-2 overall this season was worth the wait, after a scheduled mid-week game at Niagara was washed out by illness within the Purple Eagles program.
“We’re always prepared, whether we play or not,” graduate guard Mickayla Perdue said. “If we had to practice, we were going to go practice hard. If it’s time to play, we gonna lace ‘em up and go play.”
Jordana Reisma certainly wasn’t rattled by the week-long layoff either, as the junior post player poured in a career-high 24 points on 10-for-14 shooting, while adding nine rebounds.
Though some consideration should be given to a severely undersized ODU roster that struggled mightily with their adversary’s height and length, for Reisma, it was merely the latest in a string of dominant performances that have catapulted the 6-3 Wisconsinite into one of the Horizon League’s top frontcourt players. Since her foul-trouble-hampered opener at Ohio State, Reisma has averaged 18.0 points and 7.5 rebounds per game.
“I think I just have a lot more confidence,” she observed. “My teammates and my coaches have that trust in me that I’m going to be able to make a play and do what they know that I can do.”
“Hopefully more people start talking about her now,” head coach Chris Kielsmeier said. “Because they should be.”
“Jordana is reaping the benefits of being in a system where she really feels comfortable, and she’s taking off now and playing the best basketball of her career, and it’s not a surprise to anyone in this program. It’s been amazing to see the process.”
Perdue added 23 points and five assists, highlighted by a spotless 13-for-13 mark from the free throw line. Eleven of her points occurred during a 17-2 run bridging the second and third quarters that turned a three-point CSU lead into a rout for the final 18 minutes of the afternoon.
It was perhaps the first time in this season’s five games that the Vikings’ “defend, rebound, run” system worked as intended for a notable span.
“The defense [clicked],” Perdue said. “Just the ball pressure – shoutout to Macey [Fegan], she played hard today. She might not have done everything right, but you’d never know, because she was just playing so hard. When you’re up top with someone who’s playing like that, it’s easy for you to do the same thing.”
“The ball pressure over the last 15 minutes of the game was definitely the best of the season.”
To Perdue’s point, Fegan offered what’s likely the best game of her brief Vikings career so far, including 11 points, six rebounds and, crucially, four steals. Her presence on the floor correlated almost perfectly with CSU’s elevated play.
“That’s when we got up and down,” Kielsmeier said. “We got some transition shots that we’d been struggling to get this year. It’s exciting to me how much we can grow. We didn’t play nearly as well as we wanted to in that first half, but it wasn’t a lack of effort this week, we went to work. We practiced hard, they put a lot into it, and I’m proud of them for that.”
One highlight of the game’s waning moments involved Jannah Eissa. The sophomore guard from Cairo, Egypt, who transferred to the team from NC State over the summer, entered a contest for the first time as a Viking with 3:37 to play. Moments later, teammate Kali Howard found her in stride with a stretch pass off a rebound for a transition layup. Eissa’s first points since last year’s season opener with the Wolfpack triggered an explosive cheer from the home bench.
“Jannah is a great person on and off the floor, and she works hard, she’s always finding ways to get her game going. It’s great to see someone go out there and score her first bucket. It’s a sisterhood, and it’s good to see your sister do something good.”
“I second that,” Reisma added. “Jannah works really hard, and seeing her have the confidence to go in for that layup [was great].”
Cleveland State will now travel to New Orleans over the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend for the Big Easy Classic, a multi-team event that will pit the Vikings against Louisiana on November 29th and Lamar on November 30th.
